August 19, 2025 • 48 mins
Dr. Linda P. Chinn is a native of New London, CT who currently resides in Douglasville, GA. She fulfills her mission of uprooting and pulling down false belief systems in the lives of God's people to build them up by planting in them the incorruptible seed of the living Word through her various ministries. Dr. Chinn is an accomplished entrepreneur and the creator of Linda Chinn Ministries as well as the founder of Christian Women in Training Network.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Keeping It Real with Doctor Linda Chen. This
is the podcast where real life choices need biblical truth
without the flock. Tune in every second and fourth Monday
at GWPM in Eastern Standard Time as Doctor Chen shares
faith filled, practical insights to navigate everyday challenges. Get ready
(00:21):
for real talk, real life and real answers.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Good afternoon, Good afternoon, Good afternoon, and welcome to another
episode of Keeping It Real with Doctor Linda Chen. I
am Audrebell Kearney, the producer of the show. Hope you
guys had a wonderful weekend. Glad to see you here
today with us. As always, we got another great guest
today with doctor Chen, and today it's called Minded Mind.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
You're a family business.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Now.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I don't know exactly what she means by that, because
I never know until she starts to share what that
actually means.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
But when you say business, I perk up because that's
my thing.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
If you have heard this show over the last couple
of years, you know that I love business. And she
is a businesswoman herself.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
She has amazing thing.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
She helps a lot of people, She provides a lot
of goddess and that's why we're so happy to be
a part of what she's doing. And I hope you
guys are enjoying every episode. If you have not subscribed,
I normally say this at the end of the show,
but just in case you're listening at lunchtime or break
time and you have to get off. If you have
not subscribed to this show, be sure to subscribe to
this show now and share.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
It with the friends.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
So you never listened episode because they're always recorded and
on demand. So, without further ado, I'm going to bring
up doctor Linda chen and her guest column pot Potter,
and they're gonna be talking about you know, what you
need to do to mind family business. All right, good afternoon,
and welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Good afternoon.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Thank you, Audrey, thank you, thank you, thank you for
your weal energy and your joy. I thank you that
you treat this show like it's your own. I appreciate that,
No problem, Doctor Chenny. So I don't know if you remember,
I had my older brother Chuck on. This is my nephew.
This is Colin Potter. This is my nephew, right, yes,
(02:05):
this is my nephew, and so I thank god that
he said yes to the to the show because you
don't just bring up anybody. And we've been on the
topic about the sanctity of relationships. And while we are
a close family, when it comes to business, sometimes people
can get a little lax because of relationships. So that's
(02:25):
what we're going to talk about today is minding your
family business. Don't just mind your business, but also mind
your family business. So welcome, Colin, You welcome. So let
me tell you a little bit about mister Colin Potter.
He is. He's a wonderful person, not just because it's
my nephew, but he's a very kind hearted and compassionate man.
(02:49):
I love the fact that he doesn't just talk to
be talking. He's a good listener and he has an
ear to hear. Professionally, he's general contractor and the owner
of Potter Quality Remodeling and it's a full service remodeling
company that focuses on combining quality craftsmanship in full service.
(03:10):
And he also they focus on combining the craftsmanship with
superior communication so that every process goes smooth. He knows
what his clients and what his customers want. He's been
in trade since he was a teenager, and he's quite
not a teenager anymore. But he's been in the building
industry for about fifteen years, so he knows what he's doing. Right.
(03:31):
His background is automotive, right. He started out at Grossow
Tech and the automotive and he went on to studying
diesel and technology at Lincoln Institute and then he transitioned
to his own business. Now. His passion is having a
strong passion to push yourself and others to be the
best version of yourself you can be. And if you
(03:52):
look at him on his Facebook page, he's always got
some wigged nuggets of wisdom to share. His motto is
always forward. So, without further ado, we're gonna ask mister
Potter some questions today to let us know how he
minds his family business.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
I appreciate the introduction.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yes, so tell us something about yourself that I didn't
mention in your bio.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
I'm a huge martial arts fan, really, yes, may.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
And I didn't know that. I didn't know that.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
I was a practitioner for many years and stops just
a little after I got a business going.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Wow, So do you keep your hand in it a
little bit?
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Definitely do my own training at home, but I'm looking
to get back into it.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Good, good, good good. So Colin, how old were you
when you started your business?
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I was twenty eight years old.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Wow, really almost thirty. That's a feat to me. That
took a lot of courage, right.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Thank you. I went back and forth about it for
a while with people take me serious at such a
young age as a business owner.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Did you find when you started out that they did
take you seriously?
Speaker 4 (05:06):
I definitely think they some took me seriously. I definitely
some wanted a little more information and things like that.
But once you got talking and they could see that
I knew what I was doing. The trust was.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
There did once you got to talk. And plus, you're
a great communicator, and you folks, you really are, and
you focus on people. So at what point did you
decide to hire family members? So let me ask you this,
Before you hired family members, did you hire other people?
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Yes? I did. Before I hired family members, I hired
outside and used some laborers here and there, and then
I circled back to family members.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
So do the others have they stuck with you? Do
you still have them on board?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
So we have one on board and we call him
an adopted brother.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
I love that's out with pot do it right. So
what point did you decide to hire family members. What
was that thing that came to you that said I'm
going to hire family.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
You know, using the family name meant a lot to me,
and knowing that there's history in our family behind businesses
with the family name meant a lot to me, so
as the business. When I got to a point where
I knew, I think this will work, it started opening
my mind to the idea of bringing family members in
and maybe not even in a long term position, just
(06:34):
so they know they have a place to come and
grow and move on.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
I love that, especially since you push people and encourage
people to be the best version of themselves, so it
doesn't only help give them a work ethic, but it
also gives them character building tools too. Yes, okay, I
love it. I love it. I love it. So describe
to you. Describe what family means to you.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
If I was to take family, I would put it
in a common denominator of understanding, forgiving, and loving. Family.
You can always come back to. There might be some
hard situations to get through, but we always come back
to family. And that's why I'm very deeply rooted in family.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I love that. I love it. I love it, and
so you know, we live in different states, but we
still stay close. That's what I love. And as you know,
my siblings and I have a thing that we do
every day as we text, but we live the family.
And I was the last time I was home, you
said something very poignant. I don't know if I ever
(07:50):
told you that I heard you say it, but we
were at a family gathering and someone didn't have a ride,
have a ride, and a family member said, I gotta
call a cab or I gotta call uber, so so
and so can get home. And you walked in the
room and you said, do they really think that they
(08:11):
need to call somebody outside the family to give him
a ride? He was serious. And we're all older than you,
but you have such wisdom and you show what it means.
It's not just a word, but you really show what
it means to be family. And I love that about you.
So did you put measures in place so when you
(08:32):
have family? A lot of times in business it doesn't
always go right right, Sometimes you can't go left. Did
you put any measures in place to separate family relationship
from business? Did you have to have like the talk,
so to speak?
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Not so much a talk, more that it's not personal,
it's business. At the end of the day, we have
to make decisions based upon what's best for the business.
The business can continue if we can establish that understanding there,
I think the dynamic becomes much easier to work through
any problems that might arise in the future.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
So how did you set that? How did you establish
that without having the conversation?
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Well, I think it's a little easier because as of
right now, I retain one hundred percent ownership of the business,
so it didn't have to go through a financial thing.
And I think once they knew that, hey, this is
a space where I sincerely appreciate you as an employee.
I want you to grow here, and I want you
to give me feedback because I'm learning as well. It
(09:37):
created a level of respect that everybody was learning and
growing together.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I like that. I love it. I love it. So
do you think thus far that you have created a
space that or where you drop some nuggets on them
that they actually take and use in different areas of
their lives. Do you see them doing that? Do you
see growth in them?
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Absolutely? I think carpentry can be very frustrating and it
could be very rewarding. And I think it shows you
right off the bat that you can take your two
hands and produce something by the end of the day
that you are proud of. That's a wonderful feeling to have.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I love that. So do you do It's not just remodeling.
Do you create, like right out of your own head?
Have you created anything on your own where you weren't
doing a remodeling job for somebody?
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Sure, we worked close with some customers that wanted some
different type of wall art or furniture. We've done some
custom basements that we added some nice live edge tables
and things of that nature. Custom shelving. Yeah, so we're
looking to get more custom once we get a big shop.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Well, I love it. So has anybody any family members
come on who didn't have a carpentry background.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
It's ironic. Amari, my nephew is pretty much following in
my footsteps. He was a graduate of Grosso Tech from
the automotive class and he came right into remodeling and
that was my similar path too, So I thought that
was awesome.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I love that. So you have a protege.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
I have a protegee.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Wow, And he's young so who knows what he can
learn on the business side of it. So let's talk
about the business end of it a little bit. So
on the business end, how do do you have family
that really that treats it as a side hustle?
Speaker 4 (11:39):
No, I think everybody understands how serious I take my
business and return that same respect to me.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
You know what a side hustle is, right?
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Sure? Not your full time occupation.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Right, Thank you for making that clear, right, And so
some people I know lots of people who do business
and call it a side hustle, but don't really realize
if you're going to do business, you're going to do business, right.
That's just my personal feeling about it. Right, You pay
your taxes, you know, you do what you got to
do tax wise, and so forth and so on. So
(12:11):
have you ever had family members say, hey, Colin, hook
me up with a job and you had to turn
them down?
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Yes, and no, maybe not so much turned them down,
just told them they needed to get to a certain
place for me to hire them.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I love that wisdom. I love it. Are there any
traditions or values that you would like to pass down
through generations? Now we know you have your nephew know
you have Amari, but are there any traditions of values
you would like to pass down through the generations starting
with him.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Yeah. I want them to know the significance of our
name and the name we carry. And it's very important.
You know. When I was a child, my parents used
to tell me, you're a representation of us when you
go out. So whether you're acting right or wrong, that's
your name. And I want them to carry on that name.
And I want them to feel proud to carry on
that name. Yeah, and keep pushing the keep pushing the bar.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Yeah, yes, you know. Daddy was like that. That was
we couldn't do anything in town unless it got back
to my father. Good batter, indifferent right, and there was
just if you were a part of there was certain
things you just didn't do because Daddy knew everyone, and
he was in politics, and he was in state and
local politics. And and so I love that you grasp
(13:35):
that and that your parents let you know this. This
is the family name that you're carrying through. So there
is something to be proud of in that. And what
I learned, and I don't know if you know this
or not, but we come from a history of business owners.
Did you realize that?
Speaker 4 (13:52):
So I've known about Potter's barbershop, but I don't know
of any others.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
So we have an Aunt Virginia also. Now listen to
our family history on Live. It's all good, but I'm
to share with my ask you how we come from
a family of businesses. She owned a daycare, she and
one of her sisters. So our two aunts owned the daycare,
and almost everybody who lived in that small town went
(14:20):
to Aunt Virginia's daycare, right, and so even when they
got old. Yes, and and I love that too, because
at some point, you're not just a business owner, but
you're a teacher as well, are you not?
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Yeah? Yes, teacher and student teacher.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
That's what I'm talking about. I have. We won't talk
about your model, but I, as a teacher say you
can't be a teacher if you're not a student. There's
no way you can be a teacher if you're not
a student. So you've got that tradition and those values
to protect the family name, to be good and right
and protect the values. Not only is it the family name,
(14:57):
it's personal too. So what advice we did you give
to someone else who wants to start a family business.
Has anyone ever asked you how you did it?
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Not so much the process. I think they just ask
about it. I think everybody's a little hesitant when they
think about running their own business. They just want to
know the management of stress. Is it worth the risk
and reward? So, yeah, the younger, the younger nieces and
nephews have, they've definitely started to scratch the surface with
(15:28):
some questions, which is the whole point of it, especially
at the younger age. You want to just put it
in their heads so they can start asking those questions.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
And sit at your feet even you know, we all
have someone's feet at home. You know, we need to
sit and just learn and be able to just talk freely,
right without judgment, without feeling like we're being bossed around
and told what we're what. You know, we need to
do what we have to do. And so do you
think that you'll pass that that drive on, that desire
(15:57):
to start a business. Do you think they'll it'll take
fruit or take root?
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Absolutely awesome?
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Would you consider helping someone even if it wasn't in carpentry?
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Oh? I hope to be a part of whatever businesses
they start, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a business,
whether it be a nonprofit or whatever they would like
to get into. I would love to be a part
of it in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It's good to know. I love that. That's good to know.
Have there been moments Colin when family loyalty conflicted with
business interest?
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Yeah, a couple of times, but we nip it in
the bot early. You know. It's it's it's quite simple.
If you're not living your life right or representing the
values that we want to promote at the business, we
just have to disconnect ourselves from you until you can
come back to that place.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Do you help them to come back to that place
or do you leave them to figure that out? Or
do you tell them you can go here for help
or you can go there? What's that process look like.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
I'll never deny anybody help, but I only will help
someone that is starting to help themselves.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
I like it. I like it. I like it. So then,
how do you separate family relationships from or do you
from business decisions? If you want to do something did
different or take a turn in your business or add something,
do you consider family or do you just couldn't really
consult yourself as the one hundred owner. How do you
(17:29):
do that?
Speaker 4 (17:31):
I really take the guy's considerations, definitely. I want to
know what they think about all of it. At the
end of the day, it is my decision to make.
But you got to feed the crew and you got
to make sure those guys are going to go to
war behind you. So I want everybody to be in
on it and give me their input prior to me
(17:51):
making the decision. So I definitely everyone's attention.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
I like that. That's good you include them in it. Yes,
so you said that, so that they can to work
behind you. A war behind you go to war behind you.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
It's demanding to go work in physical labor and to
add the uncomfortable weather into it, it's not the most
great situations to work in. And I want my guys
to know one I would never send them in to
do something that I wouldn't personally do or I haven't
done in the past. And two, I also want to
(18:27):
get feedback about their lives too. I want to make
sure their lives are comfortable or we could be working,
so I know that they're taking care of well. If
they're taken care of, they'll take care of me. And
that's just a push pull conversation. That's just how it
works in that relationship.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
So as a business owner, as an employer, you care
about your employees, is what I'm hearing.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Yeah, you know, I want them to feel a part
of the family as soon as they come on. And
you know, one of the guys we call him our
adopted brother, Pat, Pat has three little girls, and watching
Pat take Amari under his he's such a great teacher,
and I think a lot of that comes from him
being a great father, and I think it just ties
back into it. And that was like unbeknownst to me
(19:08):
that that relationship would form. But it was such a
beautiful thing to watch and it's a beautiful thing to
watch and grow.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Wow wow, I like that. So no one feels like
you're getting in their personal business, Like, no one feels
like you're crossing lines or anything. No.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
I think they know I'm there to support them one
hundred percent beautiful.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
I love that. So what was how talk about this?
Always forward? How was the model and tadline always forward birth?
And I was telling people at the beginning to check
out your Facebook page because every day you give something inspirational.
Talk about that a little bit, so I.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Started to always forward. I started my carpentry career in
South Windsor, Connecticut, the Greater Hartford area. I didn't know
any of the roads. I still had the old school
GPS that wasn't really as responsive as you needed it
to be. So I relied on the other carpenters to
give me directions. And we had one carpenter in particular name.
(20:08):
We called him Uncle Willy, and Uncle Willy was a
man of many sayings, a little rough around the edges,
but he had great wisdom, and every time I would
ask him straight, he would say no forward. I didn't
really understand that for many, many years until I started
to actually go out on my own and work on progress.
And once I started tracking progress, I started to notice
(20:32):
that it's not a linear path. Forward momentum could be
a zigzag path. You're still making progress, but it's not
a straight path. So it's not always straight. It's always forward.
We're always moving forward.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Wow, I love not. So you just taught me something, right,
You just taught me something. So where do you get
your nuggets from? It's like you say that you ponder
these things, and every day it seems like you come
up with something like, well, how long did this? I'm
saying to myself, how long did it take him to
come up with this? So do you meditate? Where does
(21:06):
that come from?
Speaker 4 (21:08):
So I like to use about three different places. I
do like to meditate. I try to meditate for ten
minutes a day in the morning to clear my head.
I also like to listen to motivational speeches from a
plethora of different people, from religious leaders to military leaders,
to psychologists and other doctors. And then I like to
(21:30):
hear what the general public is, what's troubling them, and
how can we be proactive about it? Because we can
all complain every day. And it started during COVID, I think,
is when I started writing every day or more and
I felt like people just needed a little bit of inspiration,
(21:51):
a little bit of something saying.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Something, saying yes. So your wisdom appeals to people of
all ages, all colors, all backgrounds. I love that. So
do you take time to come up with this with
your daily inspiration? Do you do that at night? Do
you have like a week's head already? Does it just
(22:15):
come to you?
Speaker 4 (22:18):
So if I was to turn the screen around and
show you my coffee table, which I won't. You'd see
sticky notes all over the place. I'll hear something and
I'll write it down and I'll think about it more.
And I also read a lot of books too, But
I take it from everywhere. It could come from anything,
(22:38):
and it could come from just watching a simple moment.
I like watching my friends, raised families, watching people overcome
challenging things, and I just I just take a little
bit from everybody and put it in my toolbox, and
then when I need the tool I pull it out
and try to use it.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
So do you still dabble in the automotive any.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
So? I like to service my own vehicles for sure.
I definitely plan on putting a lift in the shop
once I build that. Uh so, yeah, I have not
removed myself from modoloders.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Okay, will you take that into another area of business?
Do you think?
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Not so much another area of business? But I do
think that the younger generation, especially what I could teach
them is that the two most expensive things they'll probably
put money into in their life will be their home
and whatever vehicle they travel in. So if we can
teach them how to fix some of that, or preventive
maintenance on some of that, I think they'll definitely have
(23:43):
a leg up against the competition.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
I love it. I love it as you keep on teaching,
keep on learning. So on the on the business side again, Uh,
do you are you helping? Are you still learning carpentry?
What are you learning about corpentry?
Speaker 4 (23:58):
At this point, I'm learning about being a business owner.
So working on the business, I'm working, I'm learning about
working in the business. And my crew is younger and green,
so I do need to be there more. But yeah,
I'm learning every day. I mean there's so much progression
(24:18):
and new technologies and new products that come out, new
energy efficient codes that come out. So I'm always learning
and reading. I follow some really really talented craftsmen, from
engineers to architects, just so I can see the products
they're using, the books they're reading, the places and clients
they're working in. Are they similar to mine? So yeah,
I really try to learn as much as I can
(24:40):
every day.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
So you're not only keeping a business relevant because this
is what I heard, as you are learning different codes,
and I'm sure that they must change right from city
to city or county to county.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Do they Yeah? Sure, state to state.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
State to state. So it's not just doctors and lawyers
who need to stay up and and practice right their craft,
but it's also carpenters and I would imagine electricians now
that we think about it as well, to stay up
the code. How do you do that?
Speaker 4 (25:11):
You know? I think if you can find I don't
promote social media too much, but I think if you
could find a really really good professional in your industry
to follow that does content creation, that helps. Because I
got to be able to offer my customers products. I
can't just give them one thing, the local product. I
(25:32):
want to be able to offer the best solution for
that best scenario for that particular customer. I only know
about these products in these techniques by watching and following
and learning others. Also, the supply houses and the vendors,
they're very good at putting out information, giving you access
to information. So yeah, there's a lot of learning opportunities
(25:55):
out there. For sure, you might have to dig a
little bit, but they're out there.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Do you sure that? With the family, with the family,
with the employees.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
So two of our employees tomorrow will be going to
training for r RP. We started getting into lead abatement
and lead renovation. We work on a lot of older
homes that unfortunately have a lot of lead paint, especially
in cities. So yeah, we're getting them trained on that
and going down that road too.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I love it. I love it. Have you ever had
someone can talking about minding the family business? Does anyone
ever asked you for a special favor, because look, man,
you know I'm family. Can you do this? Will you
do this? And how do you deal with that?
Speaker 4 (26:41):
You know? I hear this common saying in business. They say,
don't don't work for family, m M, and I don't.
I don't really agree with that. I'll work for family,
no problem. You just need to say what you mean
and me, would you say, if you want to help
on a Saturday, I'll come help you on a Saturday.
If you want a job done, I'm gonna gid it
just like any other job. That's as simple as I
(27:03):
can break that down. But now everybody's been pretty kind
to me and respectful. Definitely, definitely, And I think part
of it's the work ethic. Though they know I work.
They know I work hard, and I care about what
I do and I care about taking care of my
clients too, So I would love to give everybody the
time and respect that they're forty.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
I love it. So as you go, as you grow older,
and you're quite young now, I realize that. But as
you grow older, what are your plans? Have you thought
about what you will do with the business? Uh?
Speaker 4 (27:38):
Yeah, I think the business will grow, but I don't
have a plan to grow it to ten crews twenty crews.
I want to make sure everybody gets trained properly, and
like I said, I also want them, the employees, to
know that this could be a steppingstone for you. I'm
already young. I don't expect him to stick around just
because the Potter name he shares. He's always welcome here.
(28:02):
But if this carpentry takes him someone else, somewhere else, cool,
I'd love to see him go grow in another place.
If that's what he wants to do.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Basically, just maintain the business and always keep a space.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
So, how so you don't plan on having multiple crews,
how are you going to keep it at a size
where it's how do you keep from growing? I guess
you just say no to opportunities.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
I don't want to say keep it from growing. I
think you can be very efficient with a crew of
four to five people, and the other the other side
of that is customers having realistic expectations. You don't want
to turn down. You know, if I turn you down,
(28:51):
say no, I can't get to you for two months,
and then you go hire Joe Schmoe and then you
call me back and say, hey, he messed up. This
is gonna cost you a little more now. So I
think I think people are more willing to wait when
you provide quality work.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
I love it. I love it. So how many crews
do you currently have?
Speaker 4 (29:11):
So? Right now we are a team of four and
we break up into two teams usually.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Okay, do you want it to get any bigger than that?
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Yeah? I would like to maybe get to about a
team of eight, so I don't need to be running
every crew every single day.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
That'll give me a little more time to work on
the business, to make sure everybody has what they need
and the business crows and those aspects.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
When an employee makes a snaff foo, how do you
handle it?
Speaker 4 (29:41):
The first thing I need them to understand is they
don't need to think about the money. How are we
going to pay for this? This? I messed this up.
It's gonna cost so much money. That's my job, That's
what I'll do. We just need to worry about why
the mistake was made, what we can do to correct it,
and how we're not going to do it agains.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
So you don't do the bashing you do. I love it.
You're not trying to make anybody feel poorly about themselves,
family or not. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
It's uh, I don't find it productive to do the
basher And the man who taught me, one of my
mentors who I worked for for ten years, he had
a very strict rule about if there was a problem,
that's a private conversation. No one else needs to hear that.
And that's one of the things I learned. And that
that that I think that gives you a lot of
respect from employees.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
I've learned from a wonderful uh who was my pastor said,
you you praise in public and you correct in private.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Yeah, I did too. You don't. You don't embarrass people
in front of others. So do you have employee referrals
any of you? Uhh? The family wanted to bring on
somebody else, uncle, the brother Colin, Can you hire so
and so.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
No, you know, not yet. We get them here and there,
but I don't I don't think they're that one hundred
serious yet. I think we do need to have some
days where we bring in some people just for some
internships and just to kind of see what our pace
is like and what our dynamic is. We have fun,
(31:25):
We laugh and we smile every day. We might work
very hard, but we enjoy each other's company. And I
think a lot of people like that piece of it.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
Oh yeah, that atmosphere, and I'm sure you all do
have fun. I can only imagine. All right, So who
have you brought up? I don't mean like to name names.
Have you brought anyone? Our body on it has no
carpentry experience, that has had none.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
So uh. The guy I will call my lead was
an electrician for seventeen years, very little carpentry experience, if
at all, but just his knowledge being in the trades
and his knowledge of critical thinking led him to be
a good carpenter and more and more I put more
(32:12):
responsibility on him, and I'm just utterly surprised by his
end product every time.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
So you don't do on the job. So is that on?
Is that what you call on the job training.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
Everything is on the job training. One hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Oh wow, Okay, So now that he has that other trade,
does it weave in anyhow anyway in the remodeling business.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Yeah, one hundred percent. So his experience, and again it
brings a plethora of product knowledge that I don't have.
I might not know about every light or lighting solution
or lighting schemes that are out there. He does. So
he's able to bring that piece. So now we're able
to complete a room in house, and we can have
that conversation with the customer in house without me having
(32:58):
to bring in a subcontractor or reiterate what the subcontractor
tells me to tell the customer.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
I love it. I love it. I love it, I
love it. So tell me where do you see yourself
five years from now?
Speaker 4 (33:13):
I see us having a large shop that we're working
out of, and I see us getting into adding the
letter batement to the business, full let abatement crew, and
adding in some more woodworking and fabrication in the shop.
I want to do some furniture and some other things of.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
That nature, cabinetry, anything things like.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
That, Yeah, tables, cabinetry, floating shelves, I'd like to use
a lot of locally sourced wood. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
So does that mean that you will go in you'll
have a shop from where people can go and choose
items to bring into their homes.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
Yeah. So we'll do like a little display area. And
then I want to you know, when you think of
home based businesses, they don't always leave themselves for the
greatest place for employees to come wash up before they
go home, or you know, clean themselves up. So I
do want a facility that can facilitate all these different
aspects of the business. Give the guys a place to
(34:14):
load the trucks in the morning, park the company trucks
in the morning, wash up before they go home, so
they're not coming home covered in dust and muck and
right from the day. And I'd also like to give
customers a place to come see a couple different products,
so we don't have to just show you pictures and emails. Like,
let you come see and put your hands on something.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
That's that's good and that's important. And I love the
fact that you care about how they go home, right,
I care about how you present yourself when you go home.
My dad used to work at Electric Boat, right, and
there were times when Daddy would come home and we
would get bits of steel right in our finger just
from hugging them right or just touching him, because that's
(34:54):
how he had to come home. There really was no
place for them to go and get themselves together before
coming back to the house. I love that. I love it.
So do you feel like the employees know the important
of not just protecting a name, but of protecting the
Potter name, Because when you name the business Potter Quality Remodeling,
(35:16):
I'm like, that's pretty brave, right to me, that's a
brave thing to name a company.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
I didn't realize that at the time, and then once
I thought about it, I had to switch the way
I conducted myself and everywhere I went now because my
name is on the business. So once I knew that
within myself, I was able to carry myself and convey
that to everyone else. That's a part of the business.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
That my name matters, that our name matters.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
You are a representation of me when you were wearing
that shirt. This is Potter Quality Remodeling.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Let's see the logo. I want to see the shirt.
We love it. I love it. I love the color.
Very nice.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Ye, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Very nice. I'll look for my shirt, thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
We're going to be making some more soon and getting
them out there for people to buy.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
So good. So is there anything in the family business
and think about minding the family business? What advice would
you give someone who already has a family business or
have you worked with any family businesses where you would
say to yourself, they could tweak that, they could think
about this, and well, you just may not offer the advice,
but now here's your opportunity.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
I haven't got the chance to work with too many
family businesses. A couple, couple, husband and wife teams I've
seen out there. Those were interesting dynamics because you work
with your partner and then you go home with your partner.
So it's interesting to see how those relationships were on
job sites. But from what I saw, it was strictly
(36:53):
business as usually you know. I think people that have
a family based business you need to go in understanding
that there has to be a set of guidelines and
understanding and clear communication prior to and he talks about
money business, we need to get all that out of
the way first. What is our goals as a family
(37:13):
based business and how do you value this?
Speaker 3 (37:18):
So do they go through this hiring process, the regular
hiring process.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Absolutely, you do.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Background checks and applications and all of that too.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
Absolutely in a thirty day trial period. We have to
make sure you're a good fit for the team too.
I can't just throw anybody on the team. We have
to work together. We work in some what could be
dangerous scenarios and situations. So that trust is huge.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
And that's how you mind the family business, isn't it. Yeah, exactly, No,
I'm serious because so you think about people who work
for family, that relationship is you can't take the relationship
for grinted. That's just my personal opinion. You can't take
the relationship for granted. And while I have a ministry,
(38:05):
my husband and I also have a business. But even
while hosting something. I remember hosting something some years back
and a family member. We had scheduled a family member
to have a teaching session, and just like anybody else,
they were going through some things and dealing with some things,
(38:29):
and kind of at the last minute, almost I had
to say, you can't, you can't do this. I'm gonna
have to put somebody in your place, And they understood it.
They completely understood it. It was a private conversation and
there were no hard feelings between us, right, So that's
that it's important that people know just because your family
(38:50):
doesn't mean that's not an opportunity. It doesn't give license
to behave in a wayward fashion and still expect to
get the family treatment of the hook up. Right.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
Yeah, I think they need to understand that I'm prepared
at any moment to make the best decision and the
right decision for the business, and I hope that doesn't
hinder a relationship, but they need to know that's where
my thought process is first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
I love it. I love it. So I had a
question on the top of my head. Oh my goodness,
what is something that you would advise somebody not to
do in a family business in order to mind the
family business. There any things or experiences that you have
that you would share that you would not do again.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
I wouldn't try to do it all on my own.
I think some outside help, whether that be mediation, that
could be through a plethora of sources CPAs lawyers, business coaches.
I think I would get a little more information from
them before trying to merge everything together.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
That's important.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
It is it's higher professionals who are better than you
and other aspects in your business. That is business in general.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
Yes, sometimes the shortcutters. The law ends up being a
long way around, right.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
Yeah. And as much as we would like to learn
every aspect of the business and be able to do
every aspect of it ourselves, that outside help is important
and outside perspective is important because they're able to tell us, like, hey,
that family is getting a little too in the way
of the business, you know, and that's when you're able
to step back and reflect.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
I love it. So we also had a case where
we had a family member wanting to rent, you know,
one of the houses that we own, but the rent
that they wanted to pay was just it was insulting.
You understand what I'm saying, And so how do you
feel it that whole hook a brother, hook a sister up,
a hook up because you don't understand how does that
(40:56):
make you feel?
Speaker 4 (40:58):
It is a push and pull thing. If I am
here to help you grow as a stepping stone, and
I guess we can lean towards that hook a family
member up, But that's only in so many ways because
we have to remember that I have to see you
helping yourself. If there is no type of that on
(41:20):
the table and you just want to hook up, Yeah,
that doesn't that doesn't even exist. It's not even on
the table.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Don't think it is business is business, isn't it? It
has to be you gonna mind our family business, Audrey,
I know you've heard us talking and as huesual, I
bet you have some notes. You've taken some notes, I
have some questions or comments. Come on up and let
us know what you think about mister Potter and my discussion.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
First of all, I am so impressed, bruh. Let me
just say this.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
I got a page full of notes. I'm just going
to show you like notes. I will not ask you
all of these, but I will say this.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
My husband and I recently started on a new venture together,
and what I had to come to I've been an
entrepreneur for twenty years. What I had to learn was
I need to meet him where he is when it
comes to us doing business as a family together. How
do you handle like when you have a family member
and you see that they have certain strengths, right, but
they don't want to play up to their strength. They
don't want to work up to their strength. How do
(42:24):
you handle that part? Because I know what his strengths are, right,
I see him very clearly, and if I'm not careful,
I can say the wrong thing to jeopardize the marriage.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
How do you handle that?
Speaker 4 (42:37):
You know, carpentry is tough because they're gonna fail and
that's a confidence killer. And it's like, you might have
done seven things wrong, but you did two things really
really well. And that's what we're gonna build off, the
two things you did really really well, and we'll start
adding in this And I don't even want to say
the things you did wrong. It's the things you didn't
(42:59):
do as well as you have. So we like we
like to teach attention to detail is big, and the
pressure of not worrying about the mistake is huge. Grow fail,
fail often, and you'll get closer to women.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
And then my last question, I want to ask you
all of these, Colin, but I do want to want
I want to talk about the Lean team. I thought
that was really good because where we are right now,
jobs are disappearing left and right. I don't know if
you heard it this morning, but John Deere's laying off
a bunch of people. So farmers are struggling. Everybody's struggling.
But what I heard you say was you want to
keep your team lean to eight, get to a and scale.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
How do you see yourself scaling?
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Are you going to be using technology or automation once
you get to the eight to help you scale so
you can get to the next level without bringing on
more manpower.
Speaker 4 (43:49):
You know, I keep going back and forth with technology
and adding technology, and part of me says, I would
be stupid to not take advantage of the technology that's
out there that would make my day to day job easier.
The other half of me says, the in person communications
and relationships will make your business ten times more valuable.
(44:10):
People don't want to talk to AI. They don't want
to sit and go through a prompt. If they can
hear human voice or if we can have some type
of connection, that's just going to make our business relationship
better for all parties involved.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
And that's pretty interesting.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
You say that because I, as much as I do AI,
I tend to agree with you that much because I
hate as much as I do AI. I hate talking
to hey, and I do it every single day, but
I hate talking to it last question culture, Well, let
me say this. You said something and I was like,
oh my god. He need to put that concept into
(44:47):
to the side and sell it. That whole concept about
cleaning up before you leave work and get home. I
was like, that needs to be a part of the
franchise system. And I don't know what you're thinking, but
I'm like, that's to be a part of your franchise.
That was one, and then doct I can ask you
about coach and other family members who's trying to start
a business. I thought that was great too. So that's
the whole education side. I feel like you can go
to here, but how do you create the right culture
(45:11):
for your company? And then I'm.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
Done, How do I create the culture for my company?
I take the values that I try to live by
and what I would want to see, and then I
think about it from a customer perspective too. Who would
I want to hire to be inside my home? It's personal,
but it's very personal. People don't have time to throw
(45:32):
away all the pictures and put everything away, So how
would I pick the people who are going to be
in my life? And who are we going to go
into this relationship with? So it's very important to have
a very good character, and I think part of my
writing is very much tied into my business. They share
(45:53):
the same beliefs and principles.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
All right, Yeah, this has been really good, Doctor ten,
so I turned it back over to you before we
close it out.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
Colin, do you have any last words.
Speaker 4 (46:07):
I just want to say, I am so appreciative for
this space and uh to be able to sit here
and talk about this. This is giving me great insight
on my business and places where I'm going to think
about more. So I are both y'all.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
Thank you, and I appreciate you're saying yes. And as
Colin always says, always forward path is not always going
to be straight, but you can still be progressing and
maybe make a turn or two those zigzags. So I'm
just grateful for that. I don't have anything to add
to that. Always forward doesn't necessarily mean you have to
(46:41):
go straight. I love that.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
Listen, guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode as usual,
another great episode. And I know somebody out there right
now is trying to figure out she'll be start this
family business together, because we have heard that running a
business with family could be a mess. But Colin is
showing you that it doesn't have to be It does
not have to be a mess, and you can be
profitable and have a good time and have a nice
(47:05):
culture and great values. Go back, listen to the episode
again because he said a lot of great things. You
saw my notes, so if you weren't taking those, go
back and listen to it again because he said at
a lot of great things, especially if you're trying to
start in the business. If you enjoy this episode, be
sure to subscribe to this show. Whether you listen to
it on Apple, Spotify, our Heart wherever it is and
(47:26):
it's everywhere YouTube, listen to Amazon Music, We're there too.
If you listen to it where you listen to a
subscribe to the show. Go to doctor Chan's page lend
Thechenmanistries dot com to subscribe and find out more about
all of the great things that she's doing to help
our community and to help our global world around as
we are around the world. Doctor ten, thank you as
always for bringing on great guests, and Colin, thank you
(47:46):
so much for saying yes, We'll be back in two weeks,
same place, same time, So until next time, make it
a great day by everybody.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
You've been listening to Keeping It Real, Doctor Linda Chin.
If you enjoyed this episode, hit the like button and
share it with a friend. Be sure to support the
show by going to Lindachinministries dot com. Subscribe to the
show so you never miss an episode, and tune in
again in two weeks at two pm Eastern Standardize until
(48:16):
next time, Keep the faith and Keep it Real.
Welcome to Keeping It Real with Doctor Linda Chen. This
is the podcast where real life choices need biblical truth
without the flock. Tune in every second and fourth Monday
at GWPM in Eastern Standard Time as Doctor Chen shares
faith filled, practical insights to navigate everyday challenges. Get ready
(00:21):
for real talk, real life and real answers.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Good afternoon, Good afternoon, Good afternoon, and welcome to another
episode of Keeping It Real with Doctor Linda Chen. I
am Audrebell Kearney, the producer of the show. Hope you
guys had a wonderful weekend. Glad to see you here
today with us. As always, we got another great guest
today with doctor Chen, and today it's called Minded Mind.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
You're a family business.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Now.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I don't know exactly what she means by that, because
I never know until she starts to share what that
actually means.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
But when you say business, I perk up because that's
my thing.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
If you have heard this show over the last couple
of years, you know that I love business. And she
is a businesswoman herself.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
She has amazing thing.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
She helps a lot of people, She provides a lot
of goddess and that's why we're so happy to be
a part of what she's doing. And I hope you
guys are enjoying every episode. If you have not subscribed,
I normally say this at the end of the show,
but just in case you're listening at lunchtime or break
time and you have to get off. If you have
not subscribed to this show, be sure to subscribe to
this show now and share.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
It with the friends.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
So you never listened episode because they're always recorded and
on demand. So, without further ado, I'm going to bring
up doctor Linda chen and her guest column pot Potter,
and they're gonna be talking about you know, what you
need to do to mind family business. All right, good afternoon,
and welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Good afternoon.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Thank you, Audrey, thank you, thank you, thank you for
your weal energy and your joy. I thank you that
you treat this show like it's your own. I appreciate that,
No problem, Doctor Chenny. So I don't know if you remember,
I had my older brother Chuck on. This is my nephew.
This is Colin Potter. This is my nephew, right, yes,
(02:05):
this is my nephew, and so I thank god that
he said yes to the to the show because you
don't just bring up anybody. And we've been on the
topic about the sanctity of relationships. And while we are
a close family, when it comes to business, sometimes people
can get a little lax because of relationships. So that's
(02:25):
what we're going to talk about today is minding your
family business. Don't just mind your business, but also mind
your family business. So welcome, Colin, You welcome. So let
me tell you a little bit about mister Colin Potter.
He is. He's a wonderful person, not just because it's
my nephew, but he's a very kind hearted and compassionate man.
(02:49):
I love the fact that he doesn't just talk to
be talking. He's a good listener and he has an
ear to hear. Professionally, he's general contractor and the owner
of Potter Quality Remodeling and it's a full service remodeling
company that focuses on combining quality craftsmanship in full service.
(03:10):
And he also they focus on combining the craftsmanship with
superior communication so that every process goes smooth. He knows
what his clients and what his customers want. He's been
in trade since he was a teenager, and he's quite
not a teenager anymore. But he's been in the building
industry for about fifteen years, so he knows what he's doing. Right.
(03:31):
His background is automotive, right. He started out at Grossow
Tech and the automotive and he went on to studying
diesel and technology at Lincoln Institute and then he transitioned
to his own business. Now. His passion is having a
strong passion to push yourself and others to be the
best version of yourself you can be. And if you
(03:52):
look at him on his Facebook page, he's always got
some wigged nuggets of wisdom to share. His motto is
always forward. So, without further ado, we're gonna ask mister
Potter some questions today to let us know how he
minds his family business.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
I appreciate the introduction.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yes, so tell us something about yourself that I didn't
mention in your bio.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
I'm a huge martial arts fan, really, yes, may.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
And I didn't know that. I didn't know that.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
I was a practitioner for many years and stops just
a little after I got a business going.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Wow, So do you keep your hand in it a
little bit?
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Definitely do my own training at home, but I'm looking
to get back into it.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Good, good, good good. So Colin, how old were you
when you started your business?
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I was twenty eight years old.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Wow, really almost thirty. That's a feat to me. That
took a lot of courage, right.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Thank you. I went back and forth about it for
a while with people take me serious at such a
young age as a business owner.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Did you find when you started out that they did
take you seriously?
Speaker 4 (05:06):
I definitely think they some took me seriously. I definitely
some wanted a little more information and things like that.
But once you got talking and they could see that
I knew what I was doing. The trust was.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
There did once you got to talk. And plus, you're
a great communicator, and you folks, you really are, and
you focus on people. So at what point did you
decide to hire family members? So let me ask you this,
Before you hired family members, did you hire other people?
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Yes? I did. Before I hired family members, I hired
outside and used some laborers here and there, and then
I circled back to family members.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
So do the others have they stuck with you? Do
you still have them on board?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
So we have one on board and we call him
an adopted brother.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
I love that's out with pot do it right. So
what point did you decide to hire family members. What
was that thing that came to you that said I'm
going to hire family.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
You know, using the family name meant a lot to me,
and knowing that there's history in our family behind businesses
with the family name meant a lot to me, so
as the business. When I got to a point where
I knew, I think this will work, it started opening
my mind to the idea of bringing family members in
and maybe not even in a long term position, just
(06:34):
so they know they have a place to come and
grow and move on.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
I love that, especially since you push people and encourage
people to be the best version of themselves, so it
doesn't only help give them a work ethic, but it
also gives them character building tools too. Yes, okay, I
love it. I love it. I love it. So describe
to you. Describe what family means to you.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
If I was to take family, I would put it
in a common denominator of understanding, forgiving, and loving. Family.
You can always come back to. There might be some
hard situations to get through, but we always come back
to family. And that's why I'm very deeply rooted in family.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I love that. I love it. I love it, and
so you know, we live in different states, but we
still stay close. That's what I love. And as you know,
my siblings and I have a thing that we do
every day as we text, but we live the family.
And I was the last time I was home, you
said something very poignant. I don't know if I ever
(07:50):
told you that I heard you say it, but we
were at a family gathering and someone didn't have a ride,
have a ride, and a family member said, I gotta
call a cab or I gotta call uber, so so
and so can get home. And you walked in the
room and you said, do they really think that they
(08:11):
need to call somebody outside the family to give him
a ride? He was serious. And we're all older than you,
but you have such wisdom and you show what it means.
It's not just a word, but you really show what
it means to be family. And I love that about you.
So did you put measures in place so when you
(08:32):
have family? A lot of times in business it doesn't
always go right right, Sometimes you can't go left. Did
you put any measures in place to separate family relationship
from business? Did you have to have like the talk,
so to speak?
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Not so much a talk, more that it's not personal,
it's business. At the end of the day, we have
to make decisions based upon what's best for the business.
The business can continue if we can establish that understanding there,
I think the dynamic becomes much easier to work through
any problems that might arise in the future.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
So how did you set that? How did you establish
that without having the conversation?
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Well, I think it's a little easier because as of
right now, I retain one hundred percent ownership of the business,
so it didn't have to go through a financial thing.
And I think once they knew that, hey, this is
a space where I sincerely appreciate you as an employee.
I want you to grow here, and I want you
to give me feedback because I'm learning as well. It
(09:37):
created a level of respect that everybody was learning and
growing together.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I like that. I love it. I love it. So
do you think thus far that you have created a
space that or where you drop some nuggets on them
that they actually take and use in different areas of
their lives. Do you see them doing that? Do you
see growth in them?
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Absolutely? I think carpentry can be very frustrating and it
could be very rewarding. And I think it shows you
right off the bat that you can take your two
hands and produce something by the end of the day
that you are proud of. That's a wonderful feeling to have.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I love that. So do you do It's not just remodeling.
Do you create, like right out of your own head?
Have you created anything on your own where you weren't
doing a remodeling job for somebody?
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Sure, we worked close with some customers that wanted some
different type of wall art or furniture. We've done some
custom basements that we added some nice live edge tables
and things of that nature. Custom shelving. Yeah, so we're
looking to get more custom once we get a big shop.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Well, I love it. So has anybody any family members
come on who didn't have a carpentry background.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
It's ironic. Amari, my nephew is pretty much following in
my footsteps. He was a graduate of Grosso Tech from
the automotive class and he came right into remodeling and
that was my similar path too, So I thought that
was awesome.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I love that. So you have a protege.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
I have a protegee.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Wow, And he's young so who knows what he can
learn on the business side of it. So let's talk
about the business end of it a little bit. So
on the business end, how do do you have family
that really that treats it as a side hustle?
Speaker 4 (11:39):
No, I think everybody understands how serious I take my
business and return that same respect to me.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
You know what a side hustle is, right?
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Sure? Not your full time occupation.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Right, Thank you for making that clear, right, And so
some people I know lots of people who do business
and call it a side hustle, but don't really realize
if you're going to do business, you're going to do business, right.
That's just my personal feeling about it. Right, You pay
your taxes, you know, you do what you got to
do tax wise, and so forth and so on. So
(12:11):
have you ever had family members say, hey, Colin, hook
me up with a job and you had to turn
them down?
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Yes, and no, maybe not so much turned them down,
just told them they needed to get to a certain
place for me to hire them.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I love that wisdom. I love it. Are there any
traditions or values that you would like to pass down
through generations? Now we know you have your nephew know
you have Amari, but are there any traditions of values
you would like to pass down through the generations starting
with him.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Yeah. I want them to know the significance of our
name and the name we carry. And it's very important.
You know. When I was a child, my parents used
to tell me, you're a representation of us when you
go out. So whether you're acting right or wrong, that's
your name. And I want them to carry on that name.
And I want them to feel proud to carry on
that name. Yeah, and keep pushing the keep pushing the bar.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Yeah, yes, you know. Daddy was like that. That was
we couldn't do anything in town unless it got back
to my father. Good batter, indifferent right, and there was
just if you were a part of there was certain
things you just didn't do because Daddy knew everyone, and
he was in politics, and he was in state and
local politics. And and so I love that you grasp
(13:35):
that and that your parents let you know this. This
is the family name that you're carrying through. So there
is something to be proud of in that. And what
I learned, and I don't know if you know this
or not, but we come from a history of business owners.
Did you realize that?
Speaker 4 (13:52):
So I've known about Potter's barbershop, but I don't know
of any others.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
So we have an Aunt Virginia also. Now listen to
our family history on Live. It's all good, but I'm
to share with my ask you how we come from
a family of businesses. She owned a daycare, she and
one of her sisters. So our two aunts owned the daycare,
and almost everybody who lived in that small town went
(14:20):
to Aunt Virginia's daycare, right, and so even when they
got old. Yes, and and I love that too, because
at some point, you're not just a business owner, but
you're a teacher as well, are you not?
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Yeah? Yes, teacher and student teacher.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
That's what I'm talking about. I have. We won't talk
about your model, but I, as a teacher say you
can't be a teacher if you're not a student. There's
no way you can be a teacher if you're not
a student. So you've got that tradition and those values
to protect the family name, to be good and right
and protect the values. Not only is it the family name,
(14:57):
it's personal too. So what advice we did you give
to someone else who wants to start a family business.
Has anyone ever asked you how you did it?
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Not so much the process. I think they just ask
about it. I think everybody's a little hesitant when they
think about running their own business. They just want to
know the management of stress. Is it worth the risk
and reward? So, yeah, the younger, the younger nieces and
nephews have, they've definitely started to scratch the surface with
(15:28):
some questions, which is the whole point of it, especially
at the younger age. You want to just put it
in their heads so they can start asking those questions.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
And sit at your feet even you know, we all
have someone's feet at home. You know, we need to
sit and just learn and be able to just talk freely,
right without judgment, without feeling like we're being bossed around
and told what we're what. You know, we need to
do what we have to do. And so do you
think that you'll pass that that drive on, that desire
(15:57):
to start a business. Do you think they'll it'll take
fruit or take root?
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Absolutely awesome?
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Would you consider helping someone even if it wasn't in carpentry?
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Oh? I hope to be a part of whatever businesses
they start, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a business,
whether it be a nonprofit or whatever they would like
to get into. I would love to be a part
of it in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It's good to know. I love that. That's good to know.
Have there been moments Colin when family loyalty conflicted with
business interest?
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Yeah, a couple of times, but we nip it in
the bot early. You know. It's it's it's quite simple.
If you're not living your life right or representing the
values that we want to promote at the business, we
just have to disconnect ourselves from you until you can
come back to that place.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Do you help them to come back to that place
or do you leave them to figure that out? Or
do you tell them you can go here for help
or you can go there? What's that process look like.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
I'll never deny anybody help, but I only will help
someone that is starting to help themselves.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
I like it. I like it. I like it. So then,
how do you separate family relationships from or do you
from business decisions? If you want to do something did
different or take a turn in your business or add something,
do you consider family or do you just couldn't really
consult yourself as the one hundred owner. How do you
(17:29):
do that?
Speaker 4 (17:31):
I really take the guy's considerations, definitely. I want to
know what they think about all of it. At the
end of the day, it is my decision to make.
But you got to feed the crew and you got
to make sure those guys are going to go to
war behind you. So I want everybody to be in
on it and give me their input prior to me
(17:51):
making the decision. So I definitely everyone's attention.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
I like that. That's good you include them in it. Yes,
so you said that, so that they can to work
behind you. A war behind you go to war behind you.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
It's demanding to go work in physical labor and to
add the uncomfortable weather into it, it's not the most
great situations to work in. And I want my guys
to know one I would never send them in to
do something that I wouldn't personally do or I haven't
done in the past. And two, I also want to
(18:27):
get feedback about their lives too. I want to make
sure their lives are comfortable or we could be working,
so I know that they're taking care of well. If
they're taken care of, they'll take care of me. And
that's just a push pull conversation. That's just how it
works in that relationship.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
So as a business owner, as an employer, you care
about your employees, is what I'm hearing.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Yeah, you know, I want them to feel a part
of the family as soon as they come on. And
you know, one of the guys we call him our
adopted brother, Pat, Pat has three little girls, and watching
Pat take Amari under his he's such a great teacher,
and I think a lot of that comes from him
being a great father, and I think it just ties
back into it. And that was like unbeknownst to me
(19:08):
that that relationship would form. But it was such a
beautiful thing to watch and it's a beautiful thing to
watch and grow.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Wow wow, I like that. So no one feels like
you're getting in their personal business, Like, no one feels
like you're crossing lines or anything. No.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
I think they know I'm there to support them one
hundred percent beautiful.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
I love that. So what was how talk about this?
Always forward? How was the model and tadline always forward birth?
And I was telling people at the beginning to check
out your Facebook page because every day you give something inspirational.
Talk about that a little bit, so I.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Started to always forward. I started my carpentry career in
South Windsor, Connecticut, the Greater Hartford area. I didn't know
any of the roads. I still had the old school
GPS that wasn't really as responsive as you needed it
to be. So I relied on the other carpenters to
give me directions. And we had one carpenter in particular name.
(20:08):
We called him Uncle Willy, and Uncle Willy was a
man of many sayings, a little rough around the edges,
but he had great wisdom, and every time I would
ask him straight, he would say no forward. I didn't
really understand that for many, many years until I started
to actually go out on my own and work on progress.
And once I started tracking progress, I started to notice
(20:32):
that it's not a linear path. Forward momentum could be
a zigzag path. You're still making progress, but it's not
a straight path. So it's not always straight. It's always forward.
We're always moving forward.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Wow, I love not. So you just taught me something, right,
You just taught me something. So where do you get
your nuggets from? It's like you say that you ponder
these things, and every day it seems like you come
up with something like, well, how long did this? I'm
saying to myself, how long did it take him to
come up with this? So do you meditate? Where does
(21:06):
that come from?
Speaker 4 (21:08):
So I like to use about three different places. I
do like to meditate. I try to meditate for ten
minutes a day in the morning to clear my head.
I also like to listen to motivational speeches from a
plethora of different people, from religious leaders to military leaders,
to psychologists and other doctors. And then I like to
(21:30):
hear what the general public is, what's troubling them, and
how can we be proactive about it? Because we can
all complain every day. And it started during COVID, I think,
is when I started writing every day or more and
I felt like people just needed a little bit of inspiration,
(21:51):
a little bit of something saying.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Something, saying yes. So your wisdom appeals to people of
all ages, all colors, all backgrounds. I love that. So
do you take time to come up with this with
your daily inspiration? Do you do that at night? Do
you have like a week's head already? Does it just
(22:15):
come to you?
Speaker 4 (22:18):
So if I was to turn the screen around and
show you my coffee table, which I won't. You'd see
sticky notes all over the place. I'll hear something and
I'll write it down and I'll think about it more.
And I also read a lot of books too, But
I take it from everywhere. It could come from anything,
(22:38):
and it could come from just watching a simple moment.
I like watching my friends, raised families, watching people overcome
challenging things, and I just I just take a little
bit from everybody and put it in my toolbox, and
then when I need the tool I pull it out
and try to use it.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
So do you still dabble in the automotive any.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
So? I like to service my own vehicles for sure.
I definitely plan on putting a lift in the shop
once I build that. Uh so, yeah, I have not
removed myself from modoloders.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Okay, will you take that into another area of business?
Do you think?
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Not so much another area of business? But I do
think that the younger generation, especially what I could teach
them is that the two most expensive things they'll probably
put money into in their life will be their home
and whatever vehicle they travel in. So if we can
teach them how to fix some of that, or preventive
maintenance on some of that, I think they'll definitely have
(23:43):
a leg up against the competition.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
I love it. I love it as you keep on teaching,
keep on learning. So on the on the business side again, Uh,
do you are you helping? Are you still learning carpentry?
What are you learning about corpentry?
Speaker 4 (23:58):
At this point, I'm learning about being a business owner.
So working on the business, I'm working, I'm learning about
working in the business. And my crew is younger and green,
so I do need to be there more. But yeah,
I'm learning every day. I mean there's so much progression
(24:18):
and new technologies and new products that come out, new
energy efficient codes that come out. So I'm always learning
and reading. I follow some really really talented craftsmen, from
engineers to architects, just so I can see the products
they're using, the books they're reading, the places and clients
they're working in. Are they similar to mine? So yeah,
I really try to learn as much as I can
(24:40):
every day.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
So you're not only keeping a business relevant because this
is what I heard, as you are learning different codes,
and I'm sure that they must change right from city
to city or county to county.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Do they Yeah? Sure, state to state.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
State to state. So it's not just doctors and lawyers
who need to stay up and and practice right their craft,
but it's also carpenters and I would imagine electricians now
that we think about it as well, to stay up
the code. How do you do that?
Speaker 4 (25:11):
You know? I think if you can find I don't
promote social media too much, but I think if you
could find a really really good professional in your industry
to follow that does content creation, that helps. Because I
got to be able to offer my customers products. I
can't just give them one thing, the local product. I
(25:32):
want to be able to offer the best solution for
that best scenario for that particular customer. I only know
about these products in these techniques by watching and following
and learning others. Also, the supply houses and the vendors,
they're very good at putting out information, giving you access
to information. So yeah, there's a lot of learning opportunities
(25:55):
out there. For sure, you might have to dig a
little bit, but they're out there.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Do you sure that? With the family, with the family,
with the employees.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
So two of our employees tomorrow will be going to
training for r RP. We started getting into lead abatement
and lead renovation. We work on a lot of older
homes that unfortunately have a lot of lead paint, especially
in cities. So yeah, we're getting them trained on that
and going down that road too.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I love it. I love it. Have you ever had
someone can talking about minding the family business? Does anyone
ever asked you for a special favor, because look, man,
you know I'm family. Can you do this? Will you
do this? And how do you deal with that?
Speaker 4 (26:41):
You know? I hear this common saying in business. They say,
don't don't work for family, m M, and I don't.
I don't really agree with that. I'll work for family,
no problem. You just need to say what you mean
and me, would you say, if you want to help
on a Saturday, I'll come help you on a Saturday.
If you want a job done, I'm gonna gid it
just like any other job. That's as simple as I
(27:03):
can break that down. But now everybody's been pretty kind
to me and respectful. Definitely, definitely, And I think part
of it's the work ethic. Though they know I work.
They know I work hard, and I care about what
I do and I care about taking care of my
clients too, So I would love to give everybody the
time and respect that they're forty.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
I love it. So as you go, as you grow older,
and you're quite young now, I realize that. But as
you grow older, what are your plans? Have you thought
about what you will do with the business? Uh?
Speaker 4 (27:38):
Yeah, I think the business will grow, but I don't
have a plan to grow it to ten crews twenty crews.
I want to make sure everybody gets trained properly, and
like I said, I also want them, the employees, to
know that this could be a steppingstone for you. I'm
already young. I don't expect him to stick around just
because the Potter name he shares. He's always welcome here.
(28:02):
But if this carpentry takes him someone else, somewhere else, cool,
I'd love to see him go grow in another place.
If that's what he wants to do.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Basically, just maintain the business and always keep a space.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
So, how so you don't plan on having multiple crews,
how are you going to keep it at a size
where it's how do you keep from growing? I guess
you just say no to opportunities.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
I don't want to say keep it from growing. I
think you can be very efficient with a crew of
four to five people, and the other the other side
of that is customers having realistic expectations. You don't want
to turn down. You know, if I turn you down,
(28:51):
say no, I can't get to you for two months,
and then you go hire Joe Schmoe and then you
call me back and say, hey, he messed up. This
is gonna cost you a little more now. So I
think I think people are more willing to wait when
you provide quality work.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
I love it. I love it. So how many crews
do you currently have?
Speaker 4 (29:11):
So? Right now we are a team of four and
we break up into two teams usually.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Okay, do you want it to get any bigger than that?
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Yeah? I would like to maybe get to about a
team of eight, so I don't need to be running
every crew every single day.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
That'll give me a little more time to work on
the business, to make sure everybody has what they need
and the business crows and those aspects.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
When an employee makes a snaff foo, how do you
handle it?
Speaker 4 (29:41):
The first thing I need them to understand is they
don't need to think about the money. How are we
going to pay for this? This? I messed this up.
It's gonna cost so much money. That's my job, That's
what I'll do. We just need to worry about why
the mistake was made, what we can do to correct it,
and how we're not going to do it agains.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
So you don't do the bashing you do. I love it.
You're not trying to make anybody feel poorly about themselves,
family or not. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
It's uh, I don't find it productive to do the
basher And the man who taught me, one of my
mentors who I worked for for ten years, he had
a very strict rule about if there was a problem,
that's a private conversation. No one else needs to hear that.
And that's one of the things I learned. And that
that that I think that gives you a lot of
respect from employees.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
I've learned from a wonderful uh who was my pastor said,
you you praise in public and you correct in private.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Yeah, I did too. You don't. You don't embarrass people
in front of others. So do you have employee referrals
any of you? Uhh? The family wanted to bring on
somebody else, uncle, the brother Colin, Can you hire so
and so.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
No, you know, not yet. We get them here and there,
but I don't I don't think they're that one hundred
serious yet. I think we do need to have some
days where we bring in some people just for some
internships and just to kind of see what our pace
is like and what our dynamic is. We have fun,
(31:25):
We laugh and we smile every day. We might work
very hard, but we enjoy each other's company. And I
think a lot of people like that piece of it.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
Oh yeah, that atmosphere, and I'm sure you all do
have fun. I can only imagine. All right, So who
have you brought up? I don't mean like to name names.
Have you brought anyone? Our body on it has no
carpentry experience, that has had none.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
So uh. The guy I will call my lead was
an electrician for seventeen years, very little carpentry experience, if
at all, but just his knowledge being in the trades
and his knowledge of critical thinking led him to be
a good carpenter and more and more I put more
(32:12):
responsibility on him, and I'm just utterly surprised by his
end product every time.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
So you don't do on the job. So is that on?
Is that what you call on the job training.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
Everything is on the job training. One hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Oh wow, Okay, So now that he has that other trade,
does it weave in anyhow anyway in the remodeling business.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Yeah, one hundred percent. So his experience, and again it
brings a plethora of product knowledge that I don't have.
I might not know about every light or lighting solution
or lighting schemes that are out there. He does. So
he's able to bring that piece. So now we're able
to complete a room in house, and we can have
that conversation with the customer in house without me having
(32:58):
to bring in a subcontractor or reiterate what the subcontractor
tells me to tell the customer.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
I love it. I love it. I love it, I
love it. So tell me where do you see yourself
five years from now?
Speaker 4 (33:13):
I see us having a large shop that we're working
out of, and I see us getting into adding the
letter batement to the business, full let abatement crew, and
adding in some more woodworking and fabrication in the shop.
I want to do some furniture and some other things of.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
That nature, cabinetry, anything things like.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
That, Yeah, tables, cabinetry, floating shelves, I'd like to use
a lot of locally sourced wood. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
So does that mean that you will go in you'll
have a shop from where people can go and choose
items to bring into their homes.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
Yeah. So we'll do like a little display area. And
then I want to you know, when you think of
home based businesses, they don't always leave themselves for the
greatest place for employees to come wash up before they
go home, or you know, clean themselves up. So I
do want a facility that can facilitate all these different
aspects of the business. Give the guys a place to
(34:14):
load the trucks in the morning, park the company trucks
in the morning, wash up before they go home, so
they're not coming home covered in dust and muck and
right from the day. And I'd also like to give
customers a place to come see a couple different products,
so we don't have to just show you pictures and emails. Like,
let you come see and put your hands on something.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
That's that's good and that's important. And I love the
fact that you care about how they go home, right,
I care about how you present yourself when you go home.
My dad used to work at Electric Boat, right, and
there were times when Daddy would come home and we
would get bits of steel right in our finger just
from hugging them right or just touching him, because that's
(34:54):
how he had to come home. There really was no
place for them to go and get themselves together before
coming back to the house. I love that. I love it.
So do you feel like the employees know the important
of not just protecting a name, but of protecting the
Potter name, Because when you name the business Potter Quality Remodeling,
(35:16):
I'm like, that's pretty brave, right to me, that's a
brave thing to name a company.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
I didn't realize that at the time, and then once
I thought about it, I had to switch the way
I conducted myself and everywhere I went now because my
name is on the business. So once I knew that
within myself, I was able to carry myself and convey
that to everyone else. That's a part of the business.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
That my name matters, that our name matters.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
You are a representation of me when you were wearing
that shirt. This is Potter Quality Remodeling.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Let's see the logo. I want to see the shirt.
We love it. I love it. I love the color.
Very nice.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Ye, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Very nice. I'll look for my shirt, thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
We're going to be making some more soon and getting
them out there for people to buy.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
So good. So is there anything in the family business
and think about minding the family business? What advice would
you give someone who already has a family business or
have you worked with any family businesses where you would
say to yourself, they could tweak that, they could think
about this, and well, you just may not offer the advice,
but now here's your opportunity.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
I haven't got the chance to work with too many
family businesses. A couple, couple, husband and wife teams I've
seen out there. Those were interesting dynamics because you work
with your partner and then you go home with your partner.
So it's interesting to see how those relationships were on
job sites. But from what I saw, it was strictly
(36:53):
business as usually you know. I think people that have
a family based business you need to go in understanding
that there has to be a set of guidelines and
understanding and clear communication prior to and he talks about
money business, we need to get all that out of
the way first. What is our goals as a family
(37:13):
based business and how do you value this?
Speaker 3 (37:18):
So do they go through this hiring process, the regular
hiring process.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Absolutely, you do.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Background checks and applications and all of that too.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
Absolutely in a thirty day trial period. We have to
make sure you're a good fit for the team too.
I can't just throw anybody on the team. We have
to work together. We work in some what could be
dangerous scenarios and situations. So that trust is huge.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
And that's how you mind the family business, isn't it. Yeah, exactly, No,
I'm serious because so you think about people who work
for family, that relationship is you can't take the relationship
for grinted. That's just my personal opinion. You can't take
the relationship for granted. And while I have a ministry,
(38:05):
my husband and I also have a business. But even
while hosting something. I remember hosting something some years back
and a family member. We had scheduled a family member
to have a teaching session, and just like anybody else,
they were going through some things and dealing with some things,
(38:29):
and kind of at the last minute, almost I had
to say, you can't, you can't do this. I'm gonna
have to put somebody in your place, And they understood it.
They completely understood it. It was a private conversation and
there were no hard feelings between us, right, So that's
that it's important that people know just because your family
(38:50):
doesn't mean that's not an opportunity. It doesn't give license
to behave in a wayward fashion and still expect to
get the family treatment of the hook up. Right.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
Yeah, I think they need to understand that I'm prepared
at any moment to make the best decision and the
right decision for the business, and I hope that doesn't
hinder a relationship, but they need to know that's where
my thought process is first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
I love it. I love it. So I had a
question on the top of my head. Oh my goodness,
what is something that you would advise somebody not to
do in a family business in order to mind the
family business. There any things or experiences that you have
that you would share that you would not do again.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
I wouldn't try to do it all on my own.
I think some outside help, whether that be mediation, that
could be through a plethora of sources CPAs lawyers, business coaches.
I think I would get a little more information from
them before trying to merge everything together.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
That's important.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
It is it's higher professionals who are better than you
and other aspects in your business. That is business in general.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
Yes, sometimes the shortcutters. The law ends up being a
long way around, right.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
Yeah. And as much as we would like to learn
every aspect of the business and be able to do
every aspect of it ourselves, that outside help is important
and outside perspective is important because they're able to tell us, like, hey,
that family is getting a little too in the way
of the business, you know, and that's when you're able
to step back and reflect.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
I love it. So we also had a case where
we had a family member wanting to rent, you know,
one of the houses that we own, but the rent
that they wanted to pay was just it was insulting.
You understand what I'm saying, And so how do you
feel it that whole hook a brother, hook a sister up,
a hook up because you don't understand how does that
(40:56):
make you feel?
Speaker 4 (40:58):
It is a push and pull thing. If I am
here to help you grow as a stepping stone, and
I guess we can lean towards that hook a family
member up, But that's only in so many ways because
we have to remember that I have to see you
helping yourself. If there is no type of that on
(41:20):
the table and you just want to hook up, Yeah,
that doesn't that doesn't even exist. It's not even on
the table.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Don't think it is business is business, isn't it? It
has to be you gonna mind our family business, Audrey,
I know you've heard us talking and as huesual, I
bet you have some notes. You've taken some notes, I
have some questions or comments. Come on up and let
us know what you think about mister Potter and my discussion.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
First of all, I am so impressed, bruh. Let me
just say this.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
I got a page full of notes. I'm just going
to show you like notes. I will not ask you
all of these, but I will say this.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
My husband and I recently started on a new venture together,
and what I had to come to I've been an
entrepreneur for twenty years. What I had to learn was
I need to meet him where he is when it
comes to us doing business as a family together. How
do you handle like when you have a family member
and you see that they have certain strengths, right, but
they don't want to play up to their strength. They
don't want to work up to their strength. How do
(42:24):
you handle that part? Because I know what his strengths are, right,
I see him very clearly, and if I'm not careful,
I can say the wrong thing to jeopardize the marriage.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
How do you handle that?
Speaker 4 (42:37):
You know, carpentry is tough because they're gonna fail and
that's a confidence killer. And it's like, you might have
done seven things wrong, but you did two things really
really well. And that's what we're gonna build off, the
two things you did really really well, and we'll start
adding in this And I don't even want to say
the things you did wrong. It's the things you didn't
(42:59):
do as well as you have. So we like we
like to teach attention to detail is big, and the
pressure of not worrying about the mistake is huge. Grow fail,
fail often, and you'll get closer to women.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
And then my last question, I want to ask you
all of these, Colin, but I do want to want
I want to talk about the Lean team. I thought
that was really good because where we are right now,
jobs are disappearing left and right. I don't know if
you heard it this morning, but John Deere's laying off
a bunch of people. So farmers are struggling. Everybody's struggling.
But what I heard you say was you want to
keep your team lean to eight, get to a and scale.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
How do you see yourself scaling?
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Are you going to be using technology or automation once
you get to the eight to help you scale so
you can get to the next level without bringing on
more manpower.
Speaker 4 (43:49):
You know, I keep going back and forth with technology
and adding technology, and part of me says, I would
be stupid to not take advantage of the technology that's
out there that would make my day to day job easier.
The other half of me says, the in person communications
and relationships will make your business ten times more valuable.
(44:10):
People don't want to talk to AI. They don't want
to sit and go through a prompt. If they can
hear human voice or if we can have some type
of connection, that's just going to make our business relationship
better for all parties involved.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
And that's pretty interesting.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
You say that because I, as much as I do AI,
I tend to agree with you that much because I
hate as much as I do AI. I hate talking
to hey, and I do it every single day, but
I hate talking to it last question culture, Well, let
me say this. You said something and I was like,
oh my god. He need to put that concept into
(44:47):
to the side and sell it. That whole concept about
cleaning up before you leave work and get home. I
was like, that needs to be a part of the
franchise system. And I don't know what you're thinking, but
I'm like, that's to be a part of your franchise.
That was one, and then doct I can ask you
about coach and other family members who's trying to start
a business. I thought that was great too. So that's
the whole education side. I feel like you can go
to here, but how do you create the right culture
(45:11):
for your company? And then I'm.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
Done, How do I create the culture for my company?
I take the values that I try to live by
and what I would want to see, and then I
think about it from a customer perspective too. Who would
I want to hire to be inside my home? It's personal,
but it's very personal. People don't have time to throw
(45:32):
away all the pictures and put everything away, So how
would I pick the people who are going to be
in my life? And who are we going to go
into this relationship with? So it's very important to have
a very good character, and I think part of my
writing is very much tied into my business. They share
(45:53):
the same beliefs and principles.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
All right, Yeah, this has been really good, Doctor ten,
so I turned it back over to you before we
close it out.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
Colin, do you have any last words.
Speaker 4 (46:07):
I just want to say, I am so appreciative for
this space and uh to be able to sit here
and talk about this. This is giving me great insight
on my business and places where I'm going to think
about more. So I are both y'all.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
Thank you, and I appreciate you're saying yes. And as
Colin always says, always forward path is not always going
to be straight, but you can still be progressing and
maybe make a turn or two those zigzags. So I'm
just grateful for that. I don't have anything to add
to that. Always forward doesn't necessarily mean you have to
(46:41):
go straight. I love that.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
Listen, guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode as usual,
another great episode. And I know somebody out there right
now is trying to figure out she'll be start this
family business together, because we have heard that running a
business with family could be a mess. But Colin is
showing you that it doesn't have to be It does
not have to be a mess, and you can be
profitable and have a good time and have a nice
(47:05):
culture and great values. Go back, listen to the episode
again because he said a lot of great things. You
saw my notes, so if you weren't taking those, go
back and listen to it again because he said at
a lot of great things, especially if you're trying to
start in the business. If you enjoy this episode, be
sure to subscribe to this show. Whether you listen to
it on Apple, Spotify, our Heart wherever it is and
(47:26):
it's everywhere YouTube, listen to Amazon Music, We're there too.
If you listen to it where you listen to a
subscribe to the show. Go to doctor Chan's page lend
Thechenmanistries dot com to subscribe and find out more about
all of the great things that she's doing to help
our community and to help our global world around as
we are around the world. Doctor ten, thank you as
always for bringing on great guests, and Colin, thank you
(47:46):
so much for saying yes, We'll be back in two weeks,
same place, same time, So until next time, make it
a great day by everybody.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
You've been listening to Keeping It Real, Doctor Linda Chin.
If you enjoyed this episode, hit the like button and
share it with a friend. Be sure to support the
show by going to Lindachinministries dot com. Subscribe to the
show so you never miss an episode, and tune in
again in two weeks at two pm Eastern Standardize until
(48:16):
next time, Keep the faith and Keep it Real.
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